Kellogg Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over ‘Real Fruit’ Claims

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Kellogg Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over ‘Real Fruit’ Claims

By Anne Bucher

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Kellogg Co. Inc., accusing the company of falsely advertising its Super Mario Fruit Snacks as being made with real fruit.

Alicia Spevak, the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, claims that the fruit snacks’ packaging was designed to entice consumers to purchase them. While the packaging states that the snacks are made with real fruit, they actually contain apple puree and various chemical additives. She claims that the Super Mario Fruit Snacks are as unhealthy as similar products that do not claim to be made with real fruit.

Spevak argues that, based on the “Made with Real Fruit” label, reasonable customers would be likely to interpret that the product is made with whole fruit rather than just a tiny percentage of real fruit. She insists in the complaint that Kellogg’s misleading statement was likely to encourage customers to purchase the product under the belief that it is a healthier fruit snack than its competitors. In reality, the product “is an unhealthy sweet snack that is full of sugar and chemicals,” according to the Super Mario Fruit Snacks class action lawsuit.

Spevak further argues that in its marketing materials Kellogg knowingly makes false statements about the product and its ingredients in effort to persuade consumers that the fruit snacks are a healthy alternative to the artificially-flavored fruit snacks on the market. In reality, these Super Mario Fruit Snacks are just as nutritionally empty as fruit snacks made by its competitors, the class action lawsuit says.

Spevak claims that she would not have purchased the product had she known that the product contained such a tiny amount of real fruit. She has asserted claims under California’s False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

In 2010, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus recommended to Kellogg that it remove the phrase “Made with Real Fruit” from its Pop Tarts labels because Pop Tarts only contain 2-6 percent fruit. CARU indicated that the “Made with Real Fruit” claim suggests that the product contains substantial amounts of fruit. Kellogg disputed this recommendation, insisting that Pop Tarts were not marketed primarily to children.

The Super Mario Fruit Snack class action lawsuit is the latest to allege false advertising by Kellogg. Earlier this year, Kellogg’s Kashi brand was sued over claims that it disguised sugar in its ingredients by listing it as “evaporated cane juice.” In May, a federal judge in California approved a $4 million class action settlement over Kellogg’s false advertising of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal’s brain-boosting abilities.

Spevak has brought this class action lawsuit on her own behalf and on behalf of “all California persons who have purchased, for personal use, Kellogg’s Super Mario Fruit Snacks that claim to be ‘Made with Real Fruit’ since April 2009.”

The Kellogg’s Super Mario Fruit Snack Class Action Lawsuit case is Alicia Spevak v. Kellogg Co., Case No. 13-cv-02767 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Spevak is represented by Benjamin M. Lopatin of The Law Offices of Howard W. Rubinstein PA.

Updated July 1st, 2013

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